Thank You

I just want to take a minute to let all of our friends and family know how much we appreciate what they do for us and how grateful we feel to have them in our lives. I feel like we get caught up in lifes everyday battles and lose site of the most important thing...family and friends. If it weren't for each and every one of you we would not be who we are as individuals and as a family. I think God every day for the life that he has chosen for me and for the family and friends he has chosen for me. I love each and every one of you more than you know.

THANK YOU!!!

Love,
Ashley

The Worries of a Mother of a 2 Year Old....

We are in week 3 of school and Jack is loving it! I was a little worried and hesitant at first because of the way he has been about school in the past. He wakes up every morning talking about school, even when he doesn't have it that day. Every day that I pick him up, I ask what he did at school and I usually get "artwork", "playground", "play with friends"....you know the normal responses from a child's day at school. Well, Monday his response was different and it has bothered me for the past 2 days. When I picked him up, I asked him how his day was. His response..."Jack bite Campbell". My response..."WHAT?!!!. Jack's response..."Campbell Cry, Jack bite Campbell." I did what every Mother would do and told him that it is not nice or right to bite anyone, etc. As soon as I got home I pulled his folder out of his backpack to check his report for the day and there was nothing. I was also thinking that if he had bitten someone that the teacher would have brought him to the car at carpool to tell me about it, so I dismissed it. He has been making up alot of stories lately, so Brandon and I just assumed that is what he was doing. We have also not had any issues with biting lately.
Well, last night I had a clothing show at my house and at the end of the show Brandon and Jack came home from dinner. There were still some girls here and they asked him how he was liking school. He said, "Jack bite Campbell, Campbell cry". I can understand him making a story up once, but not twice....especially a 2 year old, so I again lectured him and then we put him to bed. After we put him to bed, I was really bothered by this and had a million thoughts running through my head...
*I don't want the biter
*He isn't going to have any friends
*These parents of the kids he is biting are going to hate us
*He won't be invited to anything because he bites
*He is going to get kicked out of school
...I think, the normal thoughts any parent would have if in this situation.
I pondered and pondered on calling his teacher and asking. Part of me didn't want to call him out, because maybe it wasn't bad enough and the teachers didn't even know. Maybe Jack and Campbell worked it out on their own. I had decided I would just leave it be until the teacher said something.
This morning while I was dressing him I asked if he was excited about school and he answers, "yep mam Mommy. Campbell Cry, Jack bite Campbell". At this point I knew that he had to have bitten this poor little Girl....What do I do?
Well, I didn't have to wait long. Today when I picked him up from carpool his teacher brought him to the car and answered any questions that I had. He in fact had bitten Campbell on the finger on Monday and then bitten Emery today. The teacher said the he wasn't doing it to be mean, it was just out of the blue and it wasn't even leaving teeth marks. She assured me that they were working on it and that I didn't need to be alarmed at this point.
When we drove off, I asked what he did at school and surprise, surprise..."Jack bite", I say, "Who did Jack bite", he says"Emery", I then ask why, how, etc? and my 2 YEAR old goes into this 5 minute long explanation, none of which I understood. My point being that he knows what he is doing and why!!!!!
When we got home he went to time out for biting and for being sassy to Me and Aunt Sena(that is another blog entry in itself) and I have taken away his favorite thing these days, orange juice...just for the day. He will still have water and milk but that is all that I can think to do at this point because I am not there when this is happening.
I think that my fun is only beginning and am praying that we get this nipped so that he doesn't get kicked out of school, especially since he is loving it so much!
Sorry for the long post, but I did it for one to vent and for two to welcome any advice any of you Mothers may have.
I hope everyone is having a great week!

Love,
Ashley

Our First Trip to the Emergency Room

I'm sad to say that we had to make our first trip to the ER on Sunday night with Jack. I am honestly surprised that it has taken this long and don't think it will be the last time.

What a way to welcome Brandon and I home from Key West....Kim cooked a fabulous dinner for us and we had just finished eating. Kim and I were cleaning dishes, Dad was outside with Jack, and Brandon was relaxing in the living room. Jack came running in wanting his milk that was on the island. Kim stopped what she was doing to give it to him but wasn't quick enough. In the time that she put the towel down and turned around he had attempted to climb the barstool and failed. His leg slipped through the HEAVY wooden barstool and the barstool came down on top of him. The heaviest part of the stool, the seat, fell right on his mouth. When I realized what was going on I ran over and there was blood everywhere. I ran him to our bedroom and attempted to wash out his mouth to examine what was going on. It looked awful and at one point it looked like he had bitten part of his tongue. I called 911 because there was so much blook and his lip had turned blue and was sticking out as far as his nose.
I don't know how it works everywhere else but in Bham the firetruck and their paramedics come first and then the ambulance. When the firetruck showed up Jack had calmed down and was such a great patient. The paramedic took one look, assured us that his tongue was okay, but that he would probably need stitches in his lip and gums. We loaded him up and headed to the hospital. When we got in the car Jack said "Momma, helicopter bring Jack to hospital", "No Momma bring Jack" He was obviously upset that a helicopter didn't come to our house and I have no idea where that came from.
By the time we got to the hospital, the swelling had gone down a good bit and we were starting to think that he may not have to get stitches, but needed a doctor to obviously confirm that and to also look at his teeth and gums that we couldn't get to because of the swelling.
I know that the sick people in the ER thought that we were crazy because from the time we walked in Jack was bossing everyone around and running up and down the hallway as if nothing had just happened. He kept asking for milk, but we told him we would have to ask the doctor. As soon as we got to our room, the first thing he did was look at the lady that was checking us in and say "Doctor, Jack have milk". Again, I am sure she thought we were very overprotective parents bringing our child to the ER for a busted lip. The doctor came in and Jack laid back and let him look around. He said he had done a number on his lip and gums but there is nothing that you can do in the mouth. It just has to heal itself. I was so relieved!!!!! We packed up and headed home. Jack was such a trooper. I know what it feels like to have a small cut or ulcer and his is 10 times worse than that. He is eating and drinking as if it never happened.
In fact, he has tried to climb the same barstool that fell on top of him 3 times since and when I ask if he wants to get another bo bo and end up at the hospital, he says (very excited)"yeah Momma, firetruck come, go in the tunnel, see the doctor". This is why I feel another ER visit in our future. I hope to be proven wrong, but we will see.

Back to School

Jack started "cool" this past week and is loving it. I was able to get him into the same school that he went to over the summer and we are so happy with it. We loved the school at our church, but I didn't want to spend the whole day on the road since it is about 20 minutes away and I didn't want to start him in something new since he did so well in CASA for the summer.

They give the kids backpacks, that are bigger than they are and he was so proud. These are pics from his day of orientation and he didn't want to take it off.


He will go 3 days a week and I think that we are both looking forward to this school year. He will have time away from me and be able to make some new friends and I will have time to do some things around the house and some sewing.

Touchdown Tigers...

Touchdown

TIGERS!!

I don't know about your family, but the Sellers Family is eagerly awaiting the first Saturday of football. In anticipation for LSU's first game tomorrow night, Jack wore his LSU jersey that Cookie and Kim bought him last year. It is #8 for my favorite player, Trindon Holliday. I was so upset that it was too big last year, but thrilled when we tried it on this morning and it fit perfectly. Jack was so proud and excited that he asked me to "take picture Mommy, please". We had a little photo shoot before we got out to do our errands and meet Brandon for lunch. Brandon was not very thrilled with the jersey when we met him for lunch. He opened the car door and Jack said "touchdown Tigers Daddy"! I hope everyone has a great football weekend. Geaux Tigers!!!

Visit with Grandma and Grandpa

Grandma and Grandpa have been here the past few days while on their way to The Outer Banks for Labor Day. We had a great time catching up, sewing, and going to the zoo.
It is so hard to keep a 2 year old entertained all day. I have tried to do a little something with him every day and for the most part it has been great. My Mom and Doug gave us a zoo membership for his birthday and we have really enjoyed it. I say we, Brandon and Jack have. They have gone most Saturday mornings that we have been in town. It was such a pretty day here on Wednesday, so Grandma and I took Jack to the zoo. We had a great time with Grandma and Jack loved the zoo. If you ask him what he saw he would tell you the "choo choo" and that the man said "all aboard". Out of all of the activities and animals to see and do at the zoo he goes for the choo choo alone. He is in heaven and could ride it for hours. We were able to sit in the front row by the conducter this time and he was mesmorized. I think Grandma had more fun that she thought that she would.

We can't wait for their next visit!

Visit to Baton Rouge

While we were in Mandeville having Jack's 2 year pictures done, we were able to spend the day in Baton Rouge with my Maw Maw and Paw Paw and Family. When we are there Jack loves to play outside with Paw Paw. They have a great time. He also like to play the electric organ for Maw Maw. He doesn't see them that often and it amazes me the things he remembers. Everytime we walk into their house he gives kisses and hugs and heads straight to the bedroom where the electric organ(that has been around since my Aunts and Uncles were little) is, turns it on and starts playing. After about 5 minutes of that he heads outside to Paw Paws shed to climbl on the tractor(which is just a riding lawn mower). The past few times the shed has been locked because Paw Paw has some stuff in there that is not safe for the little ones. Jack will check the door, see that it is locked and run inside to where the keys to their cars are and head back out to try and unlock the door. We just laugh.

I get choked up everytime I watch him play with his Great Grandparents. He won't realize until he is older how great that is and how fortunat he is to know them and have them be able to run around and play with him.
Jack also got out into the yard with Drew to help move the wheel barrow for Paw Paw.

We had a blast and are already looking forward to our next visit in October!!

Beach Trip

This post is very long overdue. The ones that do keep up with our blog have finally given up on me at this point. Our summer has been so crazy with trips and events. I have started a new side job sewing clothes for a friend of mines small business and loving every minute of it. It is just taking up alot of my free time right now until I get a good system down. I have tons to make for Jack for the fall too! I can't wait to get it done and put it up for everyone to see. I have also just gotten an embroidery machine from my Grandmother and very anxious to learn how to use it.

Enough about me....These are pics from our wonderful beach trip a few weeks ago. When Jack was born Brandon and I decided that we would take a weeks vacation somewhere every summer with our children. For now it is the beach, and I am very okay with that. I'm sure as he gets older it will be Disney World and many other fun adventures.

Our good friends, The Stricklands were able to go with us for the whole week and we had a blast. Mary Molloy and Jack got along very well(as you can see in the pic below), the boys got to play golf and fish, and Mindy and I got some quite time on the beach(imagine that) and some shopping time. It was a much needed long vacation.We were nervous about how Jack would react to the sand since this was only the second time he had ever been to the beach. The last time was last summer when he had just turned one and started walking. Well, he loved it. The first time he put his feet in the sand he was unsure, but it took about 5 minutes and he was into it. He loved the ocean! The water was goregeous so we were able to spend alot of time in the water with the kids. This picture is on our second day at the beach. Poor thing was so tired but refused to go in for a nap. We sat him on the raft out in the ocean and within 5 minutes he was out. He slept on the raft in the ocean with us for a good 30 minutes and then Brandon carried him in and laid him on the sand for the rest of the nap.

We also got to spend the day at the point with our good friends The Martins that live in Destin. The kids had a blast playing together and the Guys had a great time seeing the sites that came in on the Cigarette boat(it was the end of boat week and the day of the poker run)..so you can only imagine the sites they saw.

All in all it was a great trip. I can't wait to go back next year! For now we need a break and I never thought I would say I am ready for the fall, but I am and it is just around the corner.